Experimenting with Tie Dye Nail Color

I was feeling adventurous last week. Inspired by the hundred of talented girls/nail geniuses on Pinterest, I decided to finally try a trend I’d been eyeing: tie-dye nails. Painting nails has never been my strong point, mind you, so this was a pretty ambitious task.

I found an awesome step-by-step guide that outlined the whole process nicely, here. The concept is pretty simple: After protecting your skin and outlining each nail with tape, you drop different colors into a small dish of water, swirl together with a toothpick, and dip your nails in it. Once the paint is dry, simply remove the tape, clean up any remnants of polish on skin with a Q-Tip, and you’re good to go.

My first attempt (pictured) didn’t come out as flawlessly as I’d hoped, but I did learn some valuable pointers for the next time I try it out:

1. Choose bold, bright nail colors. While the lavender/hot pink combo worked, using colors that are more strikingly different will have a better effect.

2. Use more than two colors.Since I was doing this on a whim, I only used two colors. Adding in a third, bright color would have pulled it all together nicely.

3. Thoroughly clean water dish between each nail. Since you’re dipping each nail into a new set of swirled colors, be sure to change the water each time – neglecting to do so (or in my case, changing the water every second nail) will result in a thin film of pain atop the water, making the final result look sloppy.

Now that I know what I’m doing with it all, I’m excited to try the process out again!

Have you tried tie-dyed nails or another Pinterest trend? Let us know in the comments, or tweet them to @agirlsgottaspa!

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Amanda is a NYC-based social media professional by day and a beauty-obsessed blogger by night. When not managing communities at VaynerMedia, Amanda can be found Twittering away on her iPhone or rooting through Sephora in search of that just-perfect shade of red lipstick.